Well, Brian...
It may be just a wish and a prayer, but looking at who the last-finishing Division III corps were this year, it looks like a pretty solid group, at least historically.

While the last place Blue Saints were small and didn't score as well as they might have hoped, I don't think that competition is a really big thing for them, and it seems like there are more years that they don't bother to field a corps than they do.

I won't pretend to know anything about the Citations' circumstances, but they have been around for a lot of years and seem to have husbanded their resources in order to make the trip to Madison this year.

The Joliet Kingmen, I worry about; probably because I've lived in Joliet for about 18 of the last 23 years.
This corps has done some really wonderful things for kids from the economically depressed (not nearly as much so as in years past) east side of Joliet.
As far as I know, they operate on a shoe-string budget, and I really wish there was some way I could help them out. (One way that I might be able to help is, if someone wanted to contributre to this wonderful little corps, I could probably get you in touch with the director, since the corps does not have a website, but I do have a phone book.)

Then, the next corps is the Decorah Kilties, one of the oldest corps in the activity, who just seem to keep plugging away.

So what do you think, Brian?
Maybe an end to that "disturbing trend"?

Let us pray, drum corps brothers and sisters, let us pray.

'Til later...

GWFrog

Life is a test, then you die and find out whether you passed or failed.

Sorry to resurect a dead thread thats over a decade old, but I want to clarrify the historical record.

I dont think it is fair to characterize the 1990 Hudson Valley All Stars as having "folded" after their last place finish.And the caveat about it being a "one shot deal" could be misinterpreted as just meaning that they folded after one year.

The Hudson Valley All-Stars Drum and Bugle Corps never had any expectation or intention of continuing to exist after that DCI performance. And it may be 'last' but we were very happy with our 37.6 score, since we went in expecting to score in the mid to high 20's. (And, if I recall correctly, there was another band who was supposed to go and didnt make it, so finishing 19th was better than our anticipated 20th)

The 1990 world championships were held in Buffalo NY. The Hudson Valley is a region in southern NY state. Not exactly close to Buffalo, but it was driving distance. When it was announced that DCI would be held so close, some band leaders got together and took the opportunity for us to actually go - Dave Schwartz led the charge. Hudson Valley All-Stars only existed for on reason- to take the kids from the local corps, and let them go to DCI.

You have to understand something- Rivermen, Circleville, and JH Ketcham were all street corps. We marched parades for fire departments, VFWs and such. None of us had ever marched, or even seen a field show. This was a huge opportunity to learn something new, and to see the pinacle of drum corps. We spent over a year ramping up- rehearsing together, learning field drill etc. Joke about band geeks being a bit crazy-- we literally spent our weekends sleeping over at a state sanitarium to rehearse. We got a couple of the high school marching band competitions in the area to let us march exhibition so we could get experience. (Somewhere in there I think we had a DCA competition or two). Then we loaded on a bus, drove all night to Buffalo, made a side trip to Toronto, Canada to march in a parade there, competed in DCI, and had a great experience watching the big corps at championships. Oh yeah- one of our drummers made it to individual finals and we got to watch him play his drum solo in the Buffalo Bulls stadium. And one our members won the individual award for keyboard. Amd we were young! Yeah we had a few older kids and some high schoolers, but I was pretty typical of our corps and I was 12. My brother was 9 when we went to DCI making him probably one of the youngest to compete on the field at championships (even if only prelims).

The All-Stars stopped existing after DCI, as planned, but the constituant corps that made it up did not. I cant get a good answer, but Circleville went on for, like, 10 more years- the nfp is still active so maybe they are still around today. The Rivermen went on for a number of years after DCI until there was a falling out with some adults - which led to a spin off corps that ran for a number of years. JH Ketcham lived on, and still lives on- reorganized in 2003 as the Royal Court D&B Corps which is still active. Whats more, right after we returned from DCI the local school district restrated a marching band program that had not existed for a long while- there were a lot of faces from the All-Stars at that first rehearsal (including instructors). That went strong for about 6 yrs until the school had budget problems and cancelled all programs for half a year (total scorched earth budget) but it survived and limped along another decade or so after that-- although it never recovered a field show program-- well, come to think of it, the HS Band never had field show after everyone from the Hudson Valley All Stars graduated and left HS; yet the HS band competition field shows were strongest in the years when all four grades had kids who jad gone to DCI. Huh. Point is, the All-Stars did not fold- those corps continued andit even spawned a new marching band into existence.

Far from some sad tale of folding corps- Hudson Valley All-Stars should be held up as a beacon of exactly what drum corps should be all about!